Autumn Leaves
by FallenFromGrace1882
Summary: Amberpaw is your typical apprentice: training hard, getting into trouble- nothing any apprentice doesn't do. With dreams of one day becoming deputy, she trains a tiny bit harder than her peers. When an uneasy and unexplained tension forms in the forest, will it threaten her dream? T for violence.


"Come on, Amberpaw! You can do this," Rowantail meowed. He crouched down in preparation to spring. Amberpaw tucked in her tail towards her belly, watching her mentor carefully. She saw the twitch of his muscles as the tom took a leap towards her. In the same instant she rose to her hind paws, ready to swat him away.

As her paws connected with her mentor, she lost her footing and tumbled into the sand. She felt a fleeting sensation of the impact on her shoulder, which told her it wouldn't be a lasting problem. Rowantail landed nimbly beside her.

"Are you alright?"

"I think so," Amberpaw meowed, spitting out sand. "I'm never going to get it," she grumbled. She rose to her feet and shook out her pelt.

"Don't be ridiculous. That's what you said when you were learning how to hunt squirrels. You'll get it. You just need to work on your balance, that's all," he purred encouragingly. "Want to try again?"

"When hedgehogs fly." Rowantail rolled his eyes. Amberpaw took a mental note of how he reacted. He was bound to make her try again, but if she knew anything about him, it wouldn't be today. He wouldn't try to push her too hard into something she didn't want to do. It made him seem like a pushover sometimes. He had proved otherwise on multiple occasions, but more often than not he was going to play up to being a softie.

"Well, hedgehogs will be flying pretty soon. How about we take a break and go hunting?"

"Sure." She was careful to not sound too perky. It might give away the fact that she didn't want to practice that move any longer. Amberpaw had more3 important training to get to anyway. She followed Rowantail out of the training hollow as they made their way toward Tall Oak. Leaves crunched noisily beneath her paws. She was amazed at how silent Rowantail was managing to keep his own paws. _At least we're not hunting around here. The prey's probably all hiding by now._

The forest itself was pretty quiet, a testament to Amberpaw's noisy leaf crunching. She knew Rowantail wouldn't complain about it. It didn't seem as though he wanted to stop and around this area anyway, but it couldn't stop her from feeling guilty anyway.

"Say, what can you scent," Rowantail ventured, glancing at her sideways. Amberpaw's ears pricked up almost instantaneously. This was something she was always excited to do. She parted her jaws to allow the scents of the forest to filter to her brain. Even though the scents of plants and undergrowth were overbearing, there were traces of other scents lingering among them. It was simply a matter of finding and identifying them.

"There's a mouse in that tangle of bracken. And there's a few squirrels that have passed by. Oh, and Hazelpelt."

Her mentor stared at her skeptically. "There's no way you got all that. There is a mouse, but I don't smell mouse or Hazelpelt. Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Of course I'm sure," Amberpaw meowed crossly. "The squirrels were probably here a few sunrises ago, so it's really faint. And remember Hazelpelt was on patrol a few sunrises ago? I can't get anyone else, but I am positive that it's her scent."

"You scare me sometimes, you know that," Rowantail breathed. "How do you do it?"

"I've told you already. I'm going to be the best tracker in LightningClan," she mewed. She dodged as Rowantail took a playful swipe at her.

"Yeah, yeah. You're going to be the best tracker, hunt down missing cats, save stolen kits and everyone will bow down to the most amazing, clearly conceited cat in the forest."

"I'm honored you would say such nice things about me…"

"Huh? I'm talking about myself."

Amberpaw rolled her eyes. "True- you did say you were the most conceited cat in the forest. But it would be awesome to track down missing cats." She thought of how amazing it would be to charge headfirst into danger to rescue captive Clanmates. The other Clans could try to cover up their trail as well as they could and Amberpaw was certain she could still find it. There wouldn't be anything capable of stopping her.

"Hey, best tracker in LightningClan? Could you move it along?" Amberpaw snapped out of her thoughts. Rowantail was a few fox lengths ahead of her and wasn't stopping for any cat. _I sure hope I can get to be._

A/N: I hope you're enjoying it!


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